Christopher Watts, seen in Weld County District Court Monday for his sentencing hearing. The Weld County District Attorney's Office on Wednesday released thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation of the death of Watts' wife and daughters. (RJ Sangosti / The Denver Post)

Shanann Watts' mother, Sandra Rzucek, reads a statement during Christopher Watts' sentencing hearing on Monday. Rzucek on Aug. 14 contacted Frederick police to tell an investigator she suspected Watts planned on pouring oil on the bodies of his wife and daughters to dispose of them. (RJ Sangosti / THE DENVER POST)

Shanann Watts' mother contacted Frederick police the day after her daughter and two grandchildren were reported missing to tell an investigator she suspected her son-in-law, Christopher Watts, planned on pouring oil on the bodies of his wife and daughters to dispose of them.

That suspicion would be partially confirmed the following day when Watts, 33, confessed to killing his pregnant wife, alleging he did so after she killed the couples' daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, according to nearly 2,000 pages of records released Wednesday by the Weld County District Attorneys Office.

Shanann Watts' body was found buried in a shallow grave inside an Anadarko Petroleum Co.-owned oil field in rural Weld County. His daughters were found inside nearby oil tanks on the same property. Christopher Watts worked for the company until Aug. 15.

Watts reported his wife and children missing on Aug. 13, and documents detail an Aug. 14 early morning contact between an investigator and Shanann Watts' mother, Sandra Rzucek . She said her son-in-law was acting "weird" and "out of the ordinary" and that she felt "foul play" was involved in the disappearance.

On the day of his wife and daughters' disappearance, Rzucek told the investigator that Watts was telling people he had to go to work, which she said just didn't "seem right," and she felt he was going out to "pour oil on the bodies to dispose of them somewhere," records indicate.

After the initial conversation, Rzucek called back to say she and her husband had spoken with Christopher Watts, and she told him that she would "become irate" if she found out he was involved in her daughters' disappearance. She told the investigator that Watts had called a neighbor to say he thought police were watching him, according to police records.

The investigator told Rzucek not to threaten her son-in-law or say to much about the investigation because at the time police did not know what direction it would take.

The following day police, brought to the oil field by GPS data obtained from Watts' Anadarko work truck, began searching the area, and took an aerial photograph using a drone. While they were at the scene, police back in Frederick informed them Watts had confessed.

Watts, by that time in police custody, was given a copy of the photograph to show investigators where he had left the bodies. He wrote his daughters' initials on each of the two oil tanks, and an "S" for Shanann on a patch of bare ground near the oil tanks where her body was buried, according to the documents released Wednesday.

A coworker of Christopher Watts told FBI investigators that on Aug. 13, she and Watts had been assigned to work at the Anadarko site where the bodies were later recovered. She told investigators that when she and a third coworker arrived at the site, Watts was already on scene and digging a small hole near an oil tank.

The coworker told investigators that Watts greeted everyone, explained what was going on with some equipment at the site and then talked about a Colorado Rockies game he said he had attended the previous Saturday. The coworker said nothing seemed amiss about Watts, but he didn't take as much care to clean equipment as he usually did.

The third coworker told an FBI investigator that Watts wasn't acting out of the ordinary, but that Watts became concerned after he said he received a call that the burglar alarm at his house was going off. He left the site saying he had to take care of the alarm.

Later in the day, the coworker asked Watts if he "caught the robber" and Watts said his family was missing.

The case thrust the small town of Frederick into the national media spotlight, and Christopher Watts appeared on Denver TV pleading for his family's safe return.

While Watts was giving an interview on Aug. 14, search dogs and officers were searching the family home in an effort to find any trace of Shanann Watts and her daughters. An officer on scene noted a strong smell of cleaning chemicals in the home and remarked that Watts seemed to smirk and smile inappropriately and display a lack of empathy, specifically when he talked about his children.

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